History Of Propaganda

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Propaganda originally came from the College or Congregation of Propaganda. The College of Propaganda was founded by Pope Gregory the 15’th in 1622. Their job was to represent the Catholic Church in foreign lands. They raised the opinion of the church by setting up missions which “saved”, fed, and helped the foreigners.
Propaganda acquired it’s first widely viewed negative connotation in Paris around 1790 when The Propaganda or Les Ambassadeurs de genre humain. The Propaganda’s mission was to bring to agitate other citizens against the rulers by expressing, “opinions and principles which are viewed by most governments with horror and aversion.” Propaganda is still associated with a group of people though, and not necessarily with a form of media. This is, however, the first time propaganda took on a commonly accepted negativity. This negative meaning spread quickly. In America, G. Seldes wrote in 1929 that, “The term propaganda has not the sinister meaning in Europe which it has acquired in America...” At about that same time, the Nazi party was perfecting propaganda techniques for domestic as well as foreign use.
The Nazis were masters of negative propaganda. They used their talent to bring pride to the Aryan race, to domonstritize ethnic, religious, and the disabled, and condemn the foreign powers that resisted them. Lenni Riefenstahl was the most skilled, and is the best known Nazi artist/propagandist. Her movie, Olympia, did a beautiful job of presenting the Summer Olympics, praising the sill, strength, and superiority of the Aryan race. In Triumph of the Will she recorded the 1934 Nuremberg rally. “…Riefenstahl's masterpiece… combines the strengths of documentary and propaganda into a single, overwhelmingly powerful visual force.” Hitler’s speech at the Nuremberg rally contained propaganda praising the Aryan, and condemning the Jews, Gypsies, and other minorities, as well as other governm...